Attention has recently been focused on the health of wild nature, first by a report suggesting that diverse UK insect populations are declining at alarming rates (Report, 11 February), and now by one showing pollinators are in trouble (Bees and hoverflies lost from a quarter of British sites, major study finds, 27 March).
While headlines implying that imminent extinction are exaggerated, as entomologists and ecologists we do think there is good evidence that insects are declining, and the ecological consequences may be serious. Insects massively outrank all other animals in diversity, numbers and biomass. Since insects underpin most non-marine food networks, serious declines would threaten the stability of wild nature, leading to reductions in numbers of insectivorous animals and those that eat them. The loss of pollinators would also adversely affect agriculture, since many crops depend on insects to set seed.
Similar reports in each of the last three years provoked a brief flurry of media attention followed by deafening silence. Most worrying of all, there has been no apparent reaction from science-funding bodies or the government. We call on the UK’s research establishment to enable intensive investigation of the real threat of ecological disruption caused by insect declines without delay.
Knowing about insects and their ways is not a luxury. The US entomologist Thomas Eisner said: “Bugs are not going to inherit the Earth. They own it now.” We dispossess them at our peril.
Simon Leather Harper Adams University, honorary fellow of the Royal Entomological Society
Stuart Reynolds University of Bath, past president of the Royal Entomological Society
John Krebs University of Oxford, formerly chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council
John Lawton University of York, formerly chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council
John Palmer House of Lords
Paul Brakefield University of Cambridge
George McGavin University of Oxford
Katherine Willis University of Oxford
Michael Hassell Imperial College
Richard Lane formerly director of science at the Natural History Museum, London
Roger Butlin University of Sheffield
Sheena Cotter University of Lincoln
Henry Disney University of Cambridge
Kevin Gaston University of Exeter
Dave Goulson University of Sussex
Rhys Green University of Cambridge
Richard Harrington editor of Antenna, the Royal Entomological Society’s house magazine
Jane Hill University of York
James Logan London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Darren Mann University of Oxford
Jane Memmott University of Bristol
Anne Oxbrough Edge Hill University
Mike Siva-Jothy University of Sheffield
Peter Smithers University of Plymouth
Jenni Stockan James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen
Jeremy Thomas University of Oxford
Nina Wedell University of Exeter
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